belknap



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

y W. L. BELKNAP. MODDING MACHINE.

Patented July 2, 1895.

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WITNESSES INVENTOR l, I y

(No Model.) l 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.V W. L. BBLKNP. MOLDING MCHINE.

No. 542,038. Patented July 2, 1895.

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1p 15' /L'g'' 14 1a' 1g' 2, C@ l @D 13. 25 23 1"" 27 y# i@ 3f J@ WxTNEssEs INVENTOR NITED STATES ATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM L. BELKNAP, OB"A BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE BELKNAP MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

MOLDING-IVIACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 542,()38, dated July 2, 1895. Application filedApril 18, 1,895. Serial No. 546,214. (No model.)

.To a/ZZ whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, WlLLIAM L. BELKNAP, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented certain y new and useful Improvements in Molding- Machines; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of4 the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention has for its general object to improve the construction of molding -machines7 the special objects being to greatly reduce the cost of the machines themselves; to simplify and improve their mode of operation, so as to insure perfect castings; to greatly increase the product of the machines, so that molds and consequently castings can be produced at greatly-reduced cost, and also to simplify and greatly improve the construction and operation of the machine as a whole. With these ends in view I have devised the novel machine ot' which the following descrip tion, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, numbers being used to designate the several parts.

Figure 1 is a front elevation of my novel molding-machine as a whole; Fig. 2, a plan View of the pattern-plate, which is partially broken away to show the carrying-plate, the latter being also broken away to show the lower plate; Fig. 3, an end view of the three plates as seen from the right in Fig. 2; Fig. et, an inverted plan view of the pattern-plate, and Fig. 5 is a section ot' the three plates on the line no m in Fig. 2.

1 denotes a frame, which may be of any ordinary or preferred construction, and 2 a rockshaft journaled in the frame and oscillated by means of a hand-lever 3 for the purpose of raising the platesin the operation of forming a set of molds, as will presently be more fully explained'. y

4 denotes a platen, against which the usual back board 29 (see dotted lines), Fig. l is pressed to force the latter down upon the sand in the flask 30 (shown only in dotted lines) when the plates are moved upward by operation of thehand-lever. i This cross-head is adj ustable on vertical arms 5, which are pivoted4 on hubs G upon the frame, so that the crosshead may be swung outot' the way when a iiask and molds are lifted from the machine.

A weight 7 is connected to a chain 8, passing 55 over a pulley 9, the other end ofthe chain being connected to one of the arms, as at 17, so that said Weight Will act to hold the arms and the cross-head in operative position.

10 denotes the pattern-plate; 11, the carry- 6o ing-plate, to which the pattern-plate is attached by screws 13, and 12 the lower plate.

14 denotes patterns attached in any suitable manner, as by screws 15, to plate lO.4 It is of course well understood that in ordinary casting the patterns are made ot' metal. My practice is to attach patterns to the patternplate and to change pattern-plates whenever `another style of casting is required.

In Fig. 2 w(see at 16) I have made a dotted 7o line to indicate that two pattern-plates may be used at the same time, each of which might ot course carry a different style of pattern, in which case two independent sets of molds might be made by the machine at the same time.

18 denotes a vertically-movable rod having rigidly secured at its upper end a plate 19, to which plate 12 is rigidly bolted. This rod passes down through the frame and is con- 8o nected by means of a link (not shown) to au arm 20, the hub 21 of which is rigidly secured to rockshaft 2, so that oscillation ot' said shaft by means of the'hand-lever will raise or lower rod 1S, carrying the plates with it. I have 85 not shown this raising mechanism in detail, as it is not of my invention and has long been in common use. v

22 denotes a collar on i'od 18, which determines the downward movementof the rod and 9o plates. v

23 denotes guide-rods which extend downward from plate 12 and also pass through the frame,guides 24 being formed upon the frame, through which rods 18 and 23 pass, so as to 95 give ample strength.

As already stated, the pattern-plate is deltachablyl secured to the carrying-plate and may be changed whenever the style of castings is changed. By that I mean that for :co standard castings I ordinarily leave the patterns attached to the pattern-plate ready for use again, although of course patterns may be detached at any time from the patternplate and a new set attached thereto. In order that I may be enabled to rap the carryingplate sufficiently to detach the sand of the mold from the patternsit is necessary to support the carrying-plate in such al manner as to permit the necessary amount of vibration when it is rapped. In order to accomplish this result I preferably rest the carrying-plate upon balls 25, lying in sockets 26 in the lower plate. Any number of these sockets and balls may be provided. In the present instance I have shown the machine as provided with five sockets and five balls, as indicated in Fig. 2. In order to provide a perfect adjustment, so that the carrying-plate will rest evenly upon all of the balls, I preferably form the sockets by mak-ing threaded openings through thelower plate, in wh-ich I place screw-plugs 27, the upper ends of which are perfectly flat, and upon which the balls rest, and in order to insure that the balls shall always remain central, or nearly so, in the sockets. By that I mean that the balls shall not come in contact with the vta-lis. I place each ball within a ring 28, in which it lies loosely, and in assembling place the ring with the ball-in it near the center of the socket, so that when the carrying-plate is rapped, as will presently -be explained, free vibration-of the carryingpiate and pattern-plate will be permitted, but without producing the effect of a positive, blow, which would be the case unless some connection permitting free vibratory-move ment were interposed between the carryingplate and the lower plate. plate is centered and rigidly locked relati vely, to the lower plate by means of tapering pins 3l, which pass freely through the lower plate and engage a correspondinglytapered opening 32 in the carrying-plate. rlhese pins are moved vertically by means of levers 33, provided with enlargements having openings, in which the pins are pivoted, as at 34, the inner ends ot' said levers being pivoted to blocks 44, which are adapted to slide in sockets 45 in brackets 35, rigidly secured to the lower plate.

It Will be seen from Fig. 5 that the amount of vibration of the carrying-plate is determined by the position of the tapering pins in openings 32 in the carrying-plate. In order to provide a delicate and exact adjustment for the tapering pins I provide set-screws 36 in brackets 35, against which the lower ends of the pins rest when they are moved downward by levers 33. The rapping of the carrying-platemay be effected in any convenient man ner. I preferably, however, provide a sliding weight 37, carried by a rod 38 and pro- -vided with inner and outer stops 39, said rod being pivoted to a block 40, itself rigidly secured to the carrying-plate. rod 38 as pivoted in a socket 41, so shaped as to permit the rod to swing in a quarter-circle,

the walls of the recess serving to limit its inward and outward movement, one wall serv- The carryingi I have shown"y ing as astop to'retain .itin operative position and the other to limit the Amovement when it is swung out of operative position, as indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 2.

As an additional safeguard to prevent displacement'of the carrying-plate relatively to the lower plate I provide brackets 42, which are bolted to the edge of the lower plate, extend upward outside of the carrying-plate, and themselves carry set-screws 43, which may be so adjusted as to permit free movement of the carrying-plate, but at the same time prevent it from moving out of operative position'.V The set-screws arelocked in position by check-nuts after adjustment.

It will of course be apparent that independent pattern-plates are not essential to the operativeness of -my invention, it being obvious that `the patterns can just as well be attached to the plate which I have termed the carrying-plate-that is, the one to which thersliding weightis attached for the purpose of rapping to detach the sand of the mold from the patterns. I preferably attach the patterns to yan independent plate, however, which I term the pa-ttern-plate,7 for the reason that the expense of the plates is but slight and they enable me to make quick changes freir. 'wie style of standard pattern to another.

46-denotes guide-rods, which extend upward from the frame, pass through holes in plate l 2, and are engaged by the flask. (See dotted lines in Fig. l.) The ask is also provided with -pins 47, (see dotted lines in Fig. 1,) which enter holes 48 in lugs 49 on plate l2,so that in usethe liask is thoroughly steadied relatively to the lower plate and the carrying-plate and also relatively to the frame of the machine. The special manner in which guide-rods 4G are attached to the frame is of course not of the essence of my invention. In the present instance I have shown said rods as threaded at their lower ends and passing through a plate 50, in which they are adj ustably secured by nuts 51 on opposite sides of the plate. Plate 50 is shown as provided with downwardly-extending arms 52, which engage opposite sidesof the frame, to which they are rigidly bolted.

The operation of my novel machine is as follows: The pattern-plate, if used, is rigidly attached to the carrying-plate, and if a pattern-plate is not used the special patterns Afrom which molds are to be made are attached to the plate which I have termed the carrying-plate. Care should be taken that the carrying-plate rests steadily upon the balls and that the balls lie near the centers of the sockets, in which position they are retained by the rings; The exact position f the balls is of little importance, it being simply necessary that they should ,not come in contact with the walls of the sockets. The

adjustment of the balls is effected by raising or lowering screw-plugs 27 until plate 12 rests evenly and firmly upon all of the balls. The iask is then placed in position, as indi- IIO ing-plate the operator again vraises the taper# cated in dotted lines Fig. 1.` The operator then raises pins 31. by meansof levers 33, forcing the pins into the tapering openings in the carrying-plate and locking the latter rigidly to plate l2. The operation of forming molds in sand in the flask proceeds in the usual manner, which I shall not describe,l

as specifically it has nothing to do with my present invention. Having filled the flask with sand, the operator places then back board in position and by means of hand-lever 3 raises plate 12 and the carrying-plate, pressing the back board against crosshead 4. While the parts are in this position the op: erator moves the tapering pins downward until their lower ends rest upon set-screws 36, which disengages the carrying-plate from plate 12, in which position the rapping is done. This is effected by swinging rod 38 .outward to the position shown in full lines in Fig. 2 and rapping the weight againstthe inner stop. This vibrates the carrying-plate sufficiently to prevent the sand of the molds from adhering to the patterns, but not enough to enlarge the molds, it being of course understood that the amount of vibration of the carrying-plate is determined by the position of pins 31 in openings 32. If a greater amount of vibration is desired, the pins are permitted to drop a little lower by lowering set-screws 36. It less vibration is desired,

.set-screws 36 are raised, which prevents theV pins from dropping down as far in the tapering openings, and thus limits the vibration of the carrying-plate. After rapping the carrying pins and locks the carrying`-plate rigidly to plate 12. The plates are then lowered by movement of hand-lever 3, the cross-head swung backward out of the way in the manner already described, and the llask with the molds therein is lifted from the pattern-plate.

It will of course be understood that the various details of construction of the machine may be varied to an almost unlimited extent without departing from the principle of my invention.

Having thus described my invention, I claim- 1. In a molding machine the combination with a plate carrying patterns, of a plate 12 having sockets 26 and balls in said'sockets upon which the carrying plate rests.

2. In a molding machine the combination with a plate carrying patterns, of a plate 12 having sockets 26, balls in said sockets upon which the carrying plate rests, rings 28 in which the balls lie loosely and which prevent the balls from coming in contact 'with the walls of the recess.

3. In a molding machine the combination with a plate carrying patterns, of a plate 12 having sockets 26 consisting of threaded openings having in them screw plugs 27 Vthe upper ends of which are flat, and balls resting upon the screw plugs upon which the carrying plate rests so that by adjustment of the screw plugs the carrying plate may be caused to rest evenly and firmly upon all the balls.

4. The combination with plate lO having patterns secured thereto and plate 11 to which plate 10 is secured, of plate l2 having sockets 26 and balls in said sockets upon which plate 11 rests.

5. The combination witha pattern carrying plate having tapering openings 32, plate 12 having sockets 26 and balls in said sockets on which the carrying plate rests, of tapering pins 3l adapted to pass through plate 12 and engage the tapering openings in the carrying plate to lock the latter rigidly relatively to plate 12. y

6. The combination with a pattern carrying plate having tapering openings 32, plate 12 having sockets 26 and balls in said sockets on which the carrying plate rests, of' tapering pins 31 adapted to pass through plate 12 and engage the tapering openings to lock the carrying platerelatively to plate 12, levers 33 by which the tapering pins are operated and set screws 36 which limit the downward movement of the pins.

7. The combination with a pattern carrying plate, plate l2 having sockets 26 and ballsin said socketson which the carrying plate rests, of a rod 38 pivoted to plate 12 and` having stops 39 and a weight adapted to slide on said rod and engage the inner stop whereby plate 12 may be vibrated as and for the purpose set forth.

8. The combination with a pattern carrying plate having tapering openings 32, plate 12 y having sockets 26 and balls in said sockets upon whichthe carrying plate rests, of ta- ICO pering pins 3l adapted to pass through plate '105 12 and engage the tapering openings, levers 33 by which the tapering pins are operated, set screws 36 which limitthe downward movement of the pins,'rod 38 pivoted to plate 12 and having stops 39 and a weight adapted to iro slide on said rod and engage the inner stop to vibrate plate 12 for the purpose set forth, the amount of vibration of`plate 12 being determined by the adjustment of the set screws.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses. t

WILLIAM L. BELKNAP. Witnesses:

A. M. WoosTER, S. V. RIcHARDsoN. 

